Seven Tips for Successful Interviews

After three and a half years of journalism school, about a year of copy editing experience and a year working as a copywriter, I feel that I have made significant improvements in writing questions for and completing interviews. Whether writing for a community blog or healthcare publication, interviews can make or break a story.

Here are seven tips for pre-interivew preparation that I learned not only in school but (more importantly) in my field of work.

1. Accuracy, accuracy, ACCURACY! Ask each interview subject to verify the spelling of his or her name, title, credential information they'd like included, age and city in which they reside.

2. Do your damn research. While I've conducted multiple interviews about joint replacement with orthopedic surgeons all over the county, each one seems to have his or her own take on joint replacement, whether it's the new implants they use, their decades of experience or the process they created from the ground up. Many of these facts and facets could be lost without a little digging and the right questions. What can you find out about this person? How long has he or she been at this job or location? What is his or her specialty? Is there something that sets this person apart from others?

3. Be able to ask conversational questions. This follows tip No. 2. If you know a little bit about the Hudson Valley region, you'd know it's scenic and knows for its beauty and that you might want to ask about this during the interview. Listen to your interviewee, and engage yourself in the topic. If it means feigning interest in the topic to ellicit the subject's genunie interests, do it. Even if it means expressing serious concern about his or her grandma who wasn't able to manage his or her "diabeetus" or the potential research opportunities of microdialysis in patients who've experienced severe traumatic brain injury. Maybe that's a stretch... but even on a phone interview, you're talking with a person, not a computer.

4. Cover all the bases—including any historical or groundbreaking news about the topic. What's most relevant to your readers? The fact that a 9.6-magnitude earthquake hit Tokyo in early spring 2010 or the increase of robberies in your neighborhood? Why should your reader care? Create questions that will, hopefully, dig up more of the story from the interview subject.

5. Don't forget closing questions. In some interviews, this can be the raciest question that you've been saving till the end. In the healthcare marketing world, I encounter more "wrap-up" questions to ensure my notes/brain are on the same page as the interviewee. "What message would you most like readers to gain?" is the cheesy standby. But hey, it works.

6. Don't turn off your recorder or hang up...quite yet. Many times the juciest part of an interview happens after you've mentally ended the interview. Then your subject starts to spill about the real reason he or she got involved, or the impact such-and-such event has had on his or her family life, etc. etc. Since I often complete multiple phone interviews on a daily basis, I rely on my phone's record option and fast typing skills. It's become second nature to type whatever conversation or interivew I'm listening to.

7. MOST IMPORTANTLY... be polite. This person is taking time out of their day to speak with you. And they don't have to do that. Don't give them a reason to hang up on your or ask you to leave—and aim to leave that person feeling good about sharing his or her story with you.